The present invention relates to digital broadcast program production, and more particularly to workflow processing for managing digital broadcast program production.
The broadcast video industry is presently in the midst of a conversion from operating in the analog domain to the digital domain and more specifically, the compressed, digital domain. This conversion is sweeping and it affects all aspects of broadcast video from field acquisition and production to playout and transmission. Broadcasters have operated in the analog domain for nearly 50 years during which time they have developed production methodologies that have served them well. Although there is widespread agreement that there are substantial benefits inherent to digital video, there is a reluctance to convert to digital because the current methodologies do not necessarily translate well to digital methodologies.
Furthermore, broadcasters rightfully expect any digital solution to interact with existing applications such as Traffic and Scheduling and video editors. Reinforcing this reluctance to move to digital operations is the introduction and heavy reliance of computers and software applications in a workplace that has traditionally employed and trusted analog devices. Even though broadcast engineers use digital video to edit video and render special effects and graphics, the studio infrastructure has essentially remained analog.
Another equally important reason for broadcasters to delay converting to digital is the prohibitive costs associated with a highly reliable, 7xc3x9724 digital infrastructure. As an example, the traditional steel rack storing relatively cheap analog tapes gets replaced by an automated, robotic tape library costing $600,000. Although it provides substantial benefit, it is very expensive and it may be viewed as a single point of failure in the system.
Thus, although the need for full conversion to digital video production and broadcast system is recognized, universal acceptance remains problematic. Accordingly, what is needed is a streamlined approach to achieving digital video production and broadcast in an efficient manner. The present invention addresses such a need.
Aspects of the present invention address workflow processing to manage digital broadcast program development and production. Workflow processing includes managing a plurality of production stages to produce a digital broadcast program, and managing a plurality of data stores during the plurality of production stages to ensure efficiency of digital broadcast program development. The plurality of data stores include ingest storage for buffering newly ingested content, object storage for storing content during production and program storage for storing content upon completion of program assembly. The plurality of production stages include a sequence of a content ingest stage, a content triage stage, a program creation stage, and a program assembly stage. The data storage management includes managing encoding of data into MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 data files during the plurality of production stages.